Category: Mississippi

Big News From Mississippi

There is good news and bad from my state of Mississippi…..

The good news is that the state legislature has deemed a state fruit and a state gemstone….

The state fruit is the blueberry….good call since the fruit is grown liberally in the west of the state.

The state gemstone is the opal…..this one confuses me since there is no major deposits of opal in this state to my knowledge.

Now for the bad news…..

Babies with an STD….

Mississippi, the nation’s poorest state, already claims the worst infant mortality rate in the US. Now, more bad news for newborns there: The number of babies treated for congenital syphilis—meaning the infection is passed down from mother to baby during gestation—spiked 900% over five years, rising from 10 in 2016 to 102 last year, reports NBC News. This new info comes via an analysis of hospital billing data conducted by Dr. Thomas Dobbs, who heads up the Crossroads Clinic run by the state’s Department of Health. That agency hasn’t yet released its final numbers for 2021, but preliminary stats align with Dobbs’ findings, and it noted that at least one baby died last year from the sexually transmitted disease.

Dobbs says that about 40% of women who contract syphilis while pregnant go on to miscarry, reports WKRG. The STD can also lead to early births, stillbirths, and low birth weight. Infants who contract syphilis can end up suffering from a range of problems, including serious anemia, an enlarged liver and spleen, jaundice, loss of eyesight or hearing, meningitis, and misshapen bones, per the Guardian. In severe cases, the babies can even die. “It is truly a very devastating condition,” pediatrician Dr. Braveen Ragunanthan, of Mississippi’s Delta Health and Bolivar Medical Center, tells NBC.

More bad news for the state…..

Recently the news had the Mississippi Coast buzzing with anticipation….SpaceX was considering launching rockets from a local Coastal city, Pascagoula.

But sadly that proposal has been crapped on…..

SpaceX will not launch rockets from the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the near future, the company’s president says.

Two oil rigs had been docked at the Port of Pascagoula for the past two years to be fitted by SpaceX to serve as launch pads for its Starship spacecraft.

 

SpaceX bought the oil rigs from Valaris for around $7 million in July 2020, weeks before it filed for bankruptcy during a market crash that sent oil prices in the negatives. The ENSCO 8500-series ships were built for about $560 million each in the late 2000s.

The company, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, had been planning to convert the rigs into launch platforms for its Starship vehicle to launch to the moon, Mars and hypersonic travel around Earth.

Phobos arrived at the Port of Pascagoula in January 2021 from Brownsville, Texas. Deimos docked in March 2022. The vessels are named after the two moons of Mars.

https://wgno.com/news/spacex-ditches-plan-to-launch-rockets-from-mississippi-gulf-coast/amp/

Not many will care about the doings in my state….but some of it is/was a big deal at least for awhile.

I hope you all have a great Sunday….Be Well….Be Safe….

“lego ergo scribo”

Only In Mississippi

Recently there was some news that had the GOP flinching and cringing.

For the last 40 years maybe more my state of Mississippi has been a bastion of far right ideology….our present governor, “Tater Twat’ Reeves is up for re-election this year, 2023.

Under normal circumstances he would be a shoo in for re-election but this year it is not a given.

That is right….for now a Democrat is leading a sitting GOP governor…..

Republicans’ worst fears about Mississippi’s gubernatorial race could be coming true after a new poll showed GOP Governor Tate Reeves trailing Democrat Brandon Presley on Monday.

Reeves’ first term, which began in 2020, has been marred by low approval ratings and several controversies, including his handling of a welfare fraud scandal involving former Governor Phil Bryant and NFL player Brett Favre and a drinking water crisis in the state capital Jackson—fueling Democratic optimism that they could flip the executive office in a state that has proven to be difficult for the party in recent years.

A new poll released on Monday could worsen Republican worries that the race could become competitive.

https://www.newsweek.com/republicans-mississippi-governors-race-fears-coming-true-tate-reeves-brandon-presley-1780930

The selling point is that Presley is a distant cousin to Elvis….but I do not think that will be enough to take him over the top in the general election in November.

There are too many ‘good old boys in the state that vote party not what is best for the state and its residents.

Reeves may be in trouble for now but I do not see the voter changing nearly a half a century of voting habits.

It is great news but I believe it is only a feel good temporary high.

I will post more on the situation in Mississippi as a run up to the general election of 2023.

Watch for the analysis.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–06Sep22

Looks like my state of Mississippi has become a trend setter….and not in a good way…..keep in ind Mississippi gave us the overturning of Roe…..and now reinforced the Jim Crow law….in case you missed it….

Mississippi Does It Again!

Appears another Southern state has jumped on the bandwagon….Florida (go figure)…..

Some 130 years ago, white lawmakers gathered in Jackson, Tallahassee, Richmond and other state capitals across the former Confederacy and rewrote their state constitutions to enshrine white supremacy.

Over the last week, Mississippi and Florida have offered modern-day examples of Jim Crow-era voter suppression that endures to this day — enacted by state legislatures, enabled by governors with White House ambitions and enforced by federal judges — and that continues to keep hundreds of thousands of citizens, disproportionately Black, from the polls.

Felony disenfranchisement, along with poll taxes, literacy tests and byzantine voter registration procedures, was among the most effective tools used by racist Southern legislators to effectively nullify the Reconstruction amendments to the U.S. Constitution across the old Confederacy and prevent Black citizens from actually exercising their supposed new rights. Lawmakers turned crimes they believed most likely to be committed by poor Black people — such as petty theft, burglary and forgery — into felonies, and then then stripped anyone convicted of those crimes from casting a ballot.

https://www.salon.com/2022/09/03/jim-crow-lives-again-florida-and-mississippi-turn-back-the-clock-on-voting-rights/

And the trend begins.

Which state will be the next to join the rush to eliminate voters?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Mississippi Does It Again!

My state of Mississippi has been in the news lately and not for too many positive things…..Roe decision…..upholds Jim Crow laws….and now the neglect that has come to bite the people of the state in the ass.

Around the capitol city of Jackson is paying a hard price for our politicians neglect….the infrastructure….

For the 150,000 or so residents of Jackson, Miss., the water situation is a mess. The capital city’s main treatment plant was on the brink of collapse, with most households having little or no water pressure. And if residents are lucky enough to have a trickle from their faucets, that water isn’t safe to drink, reports the New York Times. Public schools have switched to virtual learning in the interim, and local businesses were scrambling. Coverage:

  • Emergency: “Until it is fixed, it means we do not have reliable running water at scale,” said Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves in a briefing Monday evening. “It means the city cannot produce enough water to fight fires, to reliably flush toilets, and to meet other critical needs.” Reeves declared an emergency and said the state was mobilizing to provide bottled water for residents and a tanker system for firefighters, but he warned that the logistics of such an effort were “massively complicated.”

Latest trouble: This week, heavy rains caused the Pearl River to flood city streets, and though the flooding itself wasn’t as bad as initially feared, it worsened already existing water problems in the city and affected the OB Curtis treatment plant. The facility had to drastically cut water production because of the flooding’s effect on a nearby reservoir, reports WLBT.

  • Earlier issues: The city already had been under a “boil water” advisory for a month because of poor water quality, reports CNN. In fact, the Curtis plant has been operating on backup pumps for weeks because of unspecified damage to its main pumps. And in February 2021, the city’s entire water system shut down during a winter storm, with aging pipes and mains bursting and leaving residents without water for weeks.
  • ‘Failure’: Gov. Reeves said the state began preparing over the weekend “for a scenario where Jackson would be without running water for an extended period,” per CNN. “All of this was with the prayer that we would have more time before their system ran to failure,” the governor said. “Unfortunately, that failure appears to have begun [Monday].”
  • The mayor: Reeves didn’t invite Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba to his news conference, notes Mississippi Today. Earlier Monday, Lumumba declared a “water system emergency” but suggested the water-pressure issues might be resolved in a few days. Reeves painted a more dire picture. The GOP governor said he hadn’t spoken directly with the Democratic mayor as of Monday evening, but he said the mayor had agreed to cooperate with state officials.

This is for those that would like to know more about the failure of Mississippi government….

As many as 180,000 people in Jackson, Mississippi will not have access to safe running water for the foreseeable future, state officials said Monday night—the latest manifestation of a longstanding crisis in which the city’s residents have been made to suffer the consequences of chronically underfunded infrastructure, compounded by a worsening climate emergency.

“Do not drink the water,” Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said at a press conference. “In too many cases, it is raw water from the reservoir being pushed through the pipes. Be smart, protect yourself, protect your family, preserve water, look out for your fellow man, and look out for your neighbors.”

Reeves, a Republican who has refused to prioritize upgrading Jackson’s failing infrastructure throughout his two years in office, declared a state of emergency and announced, “We need to provide water for up to 180,000 people for an unknown period of time.”

“This is a very different situation from a boil-water notice,” Reeves continued. “Until it is fixed, we do not have reliable running water at scale. The city cannot produce enough water to fight fires, to flush toilets, and to meet other critical needs. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency will take the state’s lead on distributing drinking water and non-drinking water to residents of the City of Jackson.”

https://www.salon.com/2022/08/31/repeatedly-opposed-infrastructure-upgrades-now-mississippis-capital-has-no-safe-water_partner/

As usual the state government can only react to a disaster for they are not smart enough to foresee any disaster approaching.

As bad as their governing is the voter will buy into their nonsense and re-elect the dullards to continue to screw the people of this state.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Mississippi Makes The News–Again

Why is it that my state, Mississippi, cannot make the news for something positive….instead it keeps dragging the state back to the 1950s. The latest ruling does nothing to change that opinion.

According to the Mississippi Free Press, the traditionally right-wing U.S. Appeals Court for the Fifth Circuit has upheld an 1890 voting law in Mississippi that was explicitly designed to make it easy to strip Black people of their voting rights for life — even as the court admitted that was the original purpose of the law.

“The court’s conservative majority admitted that the Jim Crow law was ‘steeped in racism,’ but said the State had made enough changes in the 132 years since to override its white supremacist taint,” reported Ashton Pittman. “A 2018 analysis found that the law still disproportionately disenfranchises Black Mississippians compared to white residents.”

“The 1890 provision at issue is Section 241 of the Mississippi Constitution, which originally permanently disenfranchised people who committed the following crimes: bribery, burglary, theft, arson, obtaining money or goods under false pretense, perjury, forgery, embezzlement and bigamy,” noted the report.

These are all crimes that were disproportionately, or in some cases almost exclusively, used to prosecute Black people, many of whom hadn’t actually done anything wrong.

In their effort to only include crimes they believed Black people were most likely to commit, the white-supremacist drafters of the 1890 Constitution did not originally include murder and rape as disenfranchising crimes,” the report noted.

As the report noted, the Mississippi legislature adopted race neutral language in the law — something that, contrary to popular belief, a lot of Jim Crow laws of the era did — but the drafters of the law made clear in speeches what the law was for. Mississippi Speaker of the House James Vardaman said: “There is no use to equivocate or lie about the matter … Mississippi’s constitutional convention of 1890 was held for no other purpose than to eliminate the n–ger from politics. Not the ‘ignorant and vicious’, as some of the apologists would have you believe, but the n–ger.”

The Fifth Circuit argued that since the list of crimes was later updated, with burglary being taken out and murder and rape being added, there was no longer a racial intent in the list of crimes, and therefore it was now allowed — even though the state still firmly had a segregationist code at the time that list was amended.

https://www.rawstory.com/jim-crow-mississippi/

There may be a ‘New South’ but Mississippi is not one of them…..I have always said when visiting Mississippi then set your watch back 150 years.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Closing Thought–26Jul22

Occasionally I write about stuff that happens in my state of Mississippi…..this one is just disturbing on so many levels…..

The police chief of a small city in Mississippi is out of a job after an audio recording leaked in which he boasted of killing 13 people on the job and used racist and homophobic slurs, reports USA Today and the Washington Post. The board of aldermen in Lexington voted 3-2 to fire chief Sam Dobbins last week, reports WLBT, after the audio was made public by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting. Dobbins is white, while an estimated 80% of Lexington’s 1,600 residents are Black. Among the lines in the recording causing controversy:

  • “I’ve killed 13 men in my career, justified,” he said. “In my line of duty, I have shot and killed 13 different people.”
  • “I shot that n—– 119 times, OK? … The vehicle was shot 319 times, but he was hit 119 times by me.” Dobbins suggested he “saved 67 kids in a school” with this shooting in a cornfield, though the Post notes it’s unclear what he is referring to.
  • “I don’t talk to f—ing queers, I don’t talk to f—ing fa—-s.”
  • “You’re going to get some s— in the streets, and there’s only going to be one man fighting for you, and it’s going to be me, OK? Don’t ever ruin that, all right, because these other n—–s, they’re [unintelligible]. I don’t give a f— if you kill a motherf—er in cold blood. I will articulate to fix the f—ing problem, and I’m the only man in the business here that’s smart enough to do it.”

The recording was secretly made in April by Robert Lee Hooker, a Black officer who resigned last week. Regarding his claims of killing 13 people, Dobbins (before being fired) told the MCIR, “that’s something we don’t discuss, period.” Of the slurs, he said, “I don’t talk like that.”

This guy is an idiot….it is that simple.

Can you believe the stupidity?

I wish just once something good would happen in my state….instead of the stream of crap from idiots.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Mississippi Is ‘Famous’

By now the whole country has heard of the landmark court case on Roe v Wade…..but did you know that it originated in my state of Mississippi?

And that is not the only ‘famous’ court decision that originated in Mississippi…..25 years ago the landmark tobacco settlement originated in Mississippi.

Yep time for that short trip into history.

If Mississippi’s political leaders had stuck to their plan, the state would now have a trust fund of more than $4 billion earning about $320 million annually to spend on health care, based on projections made in 1999.

But, as often is pointed out, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Such is the case with the health care trust fund that was created in 1999 with the money from the state’s settlement with the tobacco companies of a landmark lawsuit to collect government funds spent treating smoking-related illnesses.

The settlement funds have been delivered to Mississippi as promised, but the promise of a trust fund was broken long ago.

The lawsuit, which originated in Mississippi, turned into a $365 billion national settlement that was announced by then-Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore and others on June 20, 1997 – 25 years ago.

The lawsuit guaranteed Mississippi $4 billion over 25-years with annual payments of $100 million or more, based on a formula, continuing forever.

https://mississippitoday.org/2022/06/26/landmark-tobacco-lawsuit-settled-25-years-ago-what-happened-to-money/

The new cash was earmarked for health issues….but since the GOP runs this state and their push to cut spending the state Congress has been hitting the fund to plug all the holes that they have created by all the austerity measures.

This is typical for Mississippi…they lie.

Like casino tax money was earmarked for education and yet the state education system sucks because there is little money.

Do you pay attention to how your tax dollars are spent?  Or do you just care about issues that mean little to the people of your state?

I can wait for the answers.

Class Dismissed!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scrfibo”

New Mississippi Laws

This is my only post for the day for I have reason to celebrate…..you see today is my birthday and I am turning 75…..which is a big deal for I never thought I would live so long.

I seldom write about my state for most people think Mississippi is just a bunch of toothless in-bred rednecks….sometimes they are not to far off the mark.

Come 01 July 2022 Mississippi will be enacting new laws.

Among the most important:

– The state’s 7.32 billion dollar budget, up 9% from the last.

– Education/Teacher Pay MAEP funding gets 83.2 Million increase.  Teachers get minimum $41,638.

(National average for teachers is $56, 310….so Mississippi is doing their teachers no favor)

– Mississippi will begin gradually reducing income taxes beginning with a drop from 5% to 4.7%.

(Perfect excuse to cut social programs for a lack of income…a GOP dream)

– Medical marijuana becomes legal.  1800 people registered for the program in the first six days of eligibility.

(The process is so convoluted that it will take decades to sort it out)

– Parker’s law makes “fentanyl delivery resulting in death” a crime than get you 20 years in prison or even life in prison.

– Critical Race Theory ban: New law withholds public funding of the curriculum to be taught.

(A waste of time….the course was only taught in Law school and it was an elective not mandatory)

-Governments can no longer mandate COVID vaccinations for employees, with one exception:  Healthcare.

(Typical GOP program that will likely make things worse if the pandemic returns)

-Death Penalty: the preferred method will not change, but if lethal injection is not possible the Department of Corrections will choose among several choices including firing squad or electrocution.

-New State Song:  Steve Azar’s “One Mississippi” will become new “contemporary” state song, replacing “Go Mississippi” which had ties to former governor Ross Barnett.

-Prohibiting discrimination against those with disabilities.

-Allow food trucks to have liquor licenses.

(Not a very good idea)

-Changes to state name, image and likeness laws for student athletes

-Protecting student speech

-Lift ban on hearing aid coverage from state health plan

Mississippi still has its feet in the 20th century…..sometimes they are firmly in the 19th century….these laws do NOTHING to make the people of Mississippi more prosperous and safer.

This was a typical session of our government…..useless policies that is seldom in the best interests of the citizens of this state.

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–04Feb22

Yipee skippy! Mississippi finally enters the 21st century….well at least on the weed front.

A pretty good start…..

Mississippi is legalizing medical marijuana for people with debilitating conditions such as cancer, AIDS, and sickle cell disease, the AP reports. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed the legislation Wednesday and it became law immediately. It could be months before the first marijuana dispensaries open. “There is no doubt that there are individuals in our state who could do significantly better if they had access to medically prescribed doses of cannabis,” Reeves wrote in a statement posted to Twitter. “There are also those who really want a recreational marijuana program that could lead to more people smoking and less people working, with all the societal and family ills that that brings.”

The National Conference of State Legislatures says 36 states and four territories already allowed the medical use of cannabis. Mississippi becomes the 37th state. “For all the people who are touched in some way by a loved one or someone they know who benefits from medical cannabis, this brings their quality of life back,” said Ken Newburger, executive director the Mississippi Medical Marijuana Association, a group that pushed for legalization. A majority of Mississippi voters approved a medical marijuana initiative in November 2020, and it would have allowed people to buy up to 5 ounces a month. The state Supreme Court invalidated it six months later by ruling that the state’s initiative process was outdated and the measure was not put properly on the ballot.

The state House and Senate, both controlled by Republicans, passed the final version of Senate Bill 2095 last week. The new law will allow patients to buy up to to 3.5 grams of cannabis per day, up to six days a week. That is about 3 ounces per month. It sets taxes on production and sale of cannabis, and it specifies that plants must be grown indoors under controlled conditions. Reeves said because of the reduction from 5 ounces a month in the initiative to 3 ounces a month in the new law, “there will be hundreds of millions of fewer joints on the streets because of this improvement.” The new law prohibits the state from providing economic development incentives for the cannabis industry, and it gives cities and counties 90 days to opt out of allowing medical marijuana facilities, for growing or selling.

I am sure the demonizing will soon begin.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–20Oct21

In little over a year the polls will open and we Americans will vote…..I have been waiting to see if the GOP has decided to have actual policies over wedge issues….the below is a flyer from my Congressman (who I would NEVER vote for because he is a mental midget political hack)……

Sorry I could not get the image to copy…..these are three areas that Palazzo wants to  champion….

Stand up for law enforcement—Really?

Restore Honest, Patriotic Education To Our Schools–that means continuing to teach the whole myth of the “Lost cause”…..

Protect Our Borders–from whom…Alabama, Louisiana or Tennessee?

If you would like to see why I could never vote for this tool then check out his stance on the issues……

https://www.ontheissues.org/House/Steven_Palazzo.htm

These are going to be the major points of the next couple of elections.  Nothing about the economy or social strife or climate change or….well you get the point….the GOP has NOTHING to offer the voter other than vague wedge issues that do NOTHING to help this country heal and prosper.

What does the voter have as a choice?

The vague babbling of a party in a downward spiral or a party that has big ideas that go nowhere?

Some choice, huh?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”